We can take for granted that the MSM will slant the story to hurt President Bush. It doesn’t matter how good the news is---it will be reported in a negative manner. This nonsense got out of hand during the 1992 presidential election. The MSM unofficially cooperated with the Clinton campaign to advance the notion that the economy was tanking. It was pure bovine excrement. I was also stunned to learn that in the presidential campaign of 2004---at least 35% of the American public thought we were in a economic recession!

193,000 new jobs. Upward revisions of 49,000 and 32,000 to November and December numbers, respectively.

Unemployment dropped sharply from 4.9 to 4.7 percent.

Wages were up 0.4% (expectations were for a 0.3% rise).

That's a very good jobs report; payroll nembers were not as spectacular as I expected, but they were solid, and I didn't anticipate that unemployment would drop at all.

Still, I lose my bet. I was anticipating a monster number in the 300,000 range, with no change in unemployment.

On the other hand, we all win the headline contest thanks to NPR. Paraphrasing:

"Unemployment dropped to 4.7%, but payrolls rose by only 193,000, less than expected, and the employment report raised fears of inflation. Analyst X says that the tightening labor market may cause interest rates to rise, which means trouble for Wall Street..."